Fabric



April 10, 1945. w. e. LUTTGE FABRIC Filed Aug. 6, 1941 INVENTOR. W/L LIAM 5. LLITTEIE ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 10, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FABRIC Application August 6, 1M1, Serial No. 4055i? 7 Claims.

This invention relate to a special effect fabric.

This invention is applicable to woven, knitted, felted or other fabrics composed wholly or partly of yarns consisting of or comprising essentially thermoplastic materials in a stretched condition (that is, a condition resulting from the manufacture of such thermoplastic yarn or the individual filaments therein with accompanying stretching) and it concerns the production of novel effects in such fabrics by bontrolled applica- 10 tion of heat to local areas thereof. The novel eifects may be variously described as a puckered, ruflied, or crinkled effect.

In the drawing, illustrative of the invention,

Figure 1 is a face view of a fabric having a regutwisted or untwisted yarns composed of thermo- 2 plastic filaments stretched during their manufacture is subjected locally to heat suflicient in intensity to release the internal stresses remainin in the filaments as a result of the stretching applied in the process of manufacturing them. The duration of application of heat may be suificient to relieve the stresses wholly or only partly, but is controlled to prevent any excessive fusing of the filaments which would give rise to any substantial or complete disruption or breaking of the fabric; The heat is applied generally at small areas or along lines which may be regularly or irregularly interrelated. The lines may have more or less width, and the areas may be more or less numerous provided, however, that the mode of application is such as to permit relatively free movement of the unaffected areas of the fabric adjacent to the heated lines or areas during at least a portion of the time of application of the heat or immediately after the application of heat before any appreciable cooling of the heated lines or areas of the fabric occurs. This freedom of movement is necessary to permit the shrinking of the heated portions of the fabric to occur in such a manner as to produce a comparatively closer structure along the heated lines or in the heated areas. The fabric may also be somewhat toughened or stiffened at the heated areas or lines as the result of more or less coalescence between touching yarns, fibers or filaments, but the puckered efiect is attainable without any appreciable coalescence between the intermeshed yarns and it is preferred to control the heating to obtain the desired shrinkage and puckering with a minimum of such coalescence in order to obtain fabrics having the greatest amount of flexibility throughout consistent with the maintenance of the puckered effect therein. For example, the heating of woven or knit fabrics may be controlled so that the yarns or threads are tacked together at their points of crossing, thereby preventing their slipping relative to one another in subsequent handling or treatment of the fabrics.

The heat may be applied by any suitable means, and it is not essential that a great amount of pressure of the heat-applying means against the fabric be employed. For example, a heated blunt instrument having a narrow flat point may be drawn by hand over the fabric while it is supported upon any suitable flat surface. Alternatively, a heated roller having the design in relief may be used to impress the fabric by passing it into the nip between the heated design roller and another smooth surface roller, which latter roller is preferably cooled. The fabric as it comes from the rolls should be free to contract under the influence of the heated lines or areas in the fabric. Where a design having relatively closely spaced lines or areas is to be imparted to the fabric, it may be preferable to employ a series of rollers in success on, each roller bearing its aliquot proportion of the total number of lines or areas involved in the design arranged so that the lines or areas in any given roller are relatively widely separated and are interrelated in such a manner that the lines or area of the design not imparted to the fabric by the first roller are impressed upon the fabric by the remaining roller or rollers into the spaces between the lines or areas impressed by the first roller. In employing successive rollers.

the fabric should be free to contract during or 1111- mediately after the application of each roller.

The temperature employed may be any desired temperature above the shrinkage temperature or the softening point of the particular material of which the thermoplastic filaments of the fabric are composed. For example, for a fabric made from continuous filaments of Vinyon (co-polymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate), a temperature between about F. and 180 F. is satisfactory, shorter times of application being employed at the higher temperatures. Ordinarily, filaments of cellulose acetate are not stretched during their manufacture. However, the process may be applied to such filaments provided a stretching procedure is employed during their manufacture, and in such a case, a temperature in the neighborhood of 300' I". or higher may be employed. Similarly, other temperatures adapted to the particular thermoplastic material may be employed when other materials are present in the fabric. Fabrics of yarns comprising fibers or'filamentsof stretched chlorinated co-polymers of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate are particularly advantageous and requiretemperatures ranging from about 180 to 270 F.

The treatment in accordance with this invention may be applied to fabrics having continuous filaments of the same or of different thermoplastic materials for both the warp and the weft; having a weft composed of one thermoplastic material and a warp composed of another thermoplastic material; or either the warp or weft component may be composed of one thermoplastic material while the other component is composed of the same or a different thermoplastic material, or of a non-thermoplastic material, or a mixture of thermoplastic fibers or filaments with 110111 thermoplastic fibers or filaments. It is essential only that the fabric contain a substantial proportion of thermoplastic fibers, filament or yarns in a stretched condition.

Any particular form of design may be employed. The design may consist of a series of parallel lines extending continuously entirely across the fabric. The lines may have regularly or irregularly spaced interruptions. Similarly the design may comprise a plurality of sets of parallel lines, each set intersecting with the other set or sets of parallel lines at any suitable angles, as

such as right angles, 45, 60', so as to form a pluralit of adjoining squares, rectangles, or triangles throughout the area of the fabric. Bimilarly, the lines may be entirely irregularly arranged throughout the area of the fabric, or regularly arranged lines may be applied to a portion of the fabric and either regularly or irregularly arrangediines or none at all may be applied to the remaining portion of the fabric. Furthermore, disconnected unit designs regularly or irregularly arranged, such as small dots, circles, squares, crosses, rectangles,- ellipses or shapes of irregular outlines, may be employed. Generally, to obtain the most pleasing effects th puckered areas of the fabric outlined by the shrunk lines or areas should preferably be larger when thicker lines or larger areag are employed but they may be smaller when thinner lines or smaller areas are employed.

The relaxation of internal of the stretched fibers or filaments accounts; for the novel effects at least to some extent. Other phenomena, such as surface tension effects which become manifest upon the superficial fusion and internal softening of the fibers or filaments, undoubtedly contribute substantially to produce the puckered, milled, or crinkled, efiect resulting from the treatment in accordance with this invention. However, it is not intended to limt the invention to any particular theory of operation.

In the drawing, there are shown patterned effects made upon a woven fabric compoud entirely of yarns of continuous filaments of a co-polymer I of the vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate manufactured with a stretch of 1000%. The fabric was treated by drawing a blunt instrument having its point heated to 165 F. over the fabric along lines 2, thereby causing a shrinking of the material along these lines and the resultant puckers or .m Iisure h s regular pattern is shown while- 'l 'igureashcwsanirrcaularpattern. Inl'isuret,

a cross-section of the fabric is shown on an enlarged scale. 'The" filaments along lines 2 are drawn more closely tosether, possibly because of superficial fusion and the surface tension effects as well as the relaxation of internal stresses present in the stretched filaments. all of which phenomena apparently become manifest upon the application of heat. This drawing together of the filaments has been observed under the microscope and an attempt to show thi eifect has been made in Figure 3 of the drawing. Figure 3 also shows the puckered or crinkled conformation at the area 3 resulting from the puckering and shrinkage tendencies exerted along the lines 2.

The invention may be applied to fabrics, the

thermoplastic filaments of which produce more or less shrinkage than that indicated in the drawing,

the eflectvarying with the amount of stretch imparted during the manufacture of the filaments and the duration and intensity of the heat applied. The fabric made in accordance with this invention has a very pleasing effect, being particularly useful in making women's clothing, quilting coverings, and linings for baskets and other burial cases.

While a preferred embodiment of' the invention has been disclosed, the description is in- 80 tended to be illustrative only, and it is to "be understood that changes and variation may be made without departing from the spirit or scope as defined by the appended of the invention claims.

Whatf claim is: 1. A fabric comprising puckered areas containing yarns intermeshed for free slippa e with respect to one another and non-puckered areas which a compared to said puckered areas have a closer intermeshing structure between yams which are tacked by coalescence at their points of crossing.

2. A fabric comprising puckered areas and non- 5 puckered areas, the yarns in said puckered areas being normally intermeshed to permit of free slippage therebetween to yield a maximum flexibility,

I said non-puckered areas comprising portions of said fabric shrunk with respect to said puckered 0 area and containing yarns partially coalesced and more closely intermeshed than those in said puckered areas. f

3. A fabric containing yarns of a polyvinyl resin and comprising puckered areas and non-puckered areas, the yamsv in said puckered areas being normally intermeshed to'permit of free slippage therebetween to yield'a maximum flexibility, said non-puckered areas comprising portions of said fabric shrunk with respect to said puckered areas and containing yarns partially coalesced and more closely intermeshed than those in said puckered areas.

4. A fabric comprising thermoplastic yarns having flexible puckered areas separated by relatively narrow irregularly" distributed lines. the

yarns in said areas being normally intermeshed for free slippage with respect to one another and the yarn; in said lines being shrunk and tacked om y pa tial. coalescence at their point of 5. A fabric comprising thermoplastic yarns having flexible puckered areas separated by relatively narrow intersecting lines, the yarns in said areas being normally intermeshed for free slipbulges in the ar as 3 surrounded by the line 2. page with respect to one another and the yarns in said lines'beina shrunk and tacked together by partial coalescence at their points of crossing.

8. A unilayer fabric comprising thermoplastic yarns having flexible puckered areas separated by relatively narrow intersecting and irregularly dis- I tributed lines, the yarns in said areas comprisin stretched filaments and being normally intermeshed ior free slipp se with respect to one another and the yarns in said line being shrunk and tacked together by partial coalescence.

7. A fabric containing yarns of a polyvinyl resin iii in said puckered areas.

and comprising puckered areas and non-puckered 'areas, the yarn in said puckered areas having WILLIAM G. LU'I'IGE. 

